Indian stock markets closed on a lighter note on Thursday after a choppy trade through the day ahead of the GST Council meeting outcome. Sensex ended up 0.1% at 33,250.93 whereas Nifty settled 0.06% higher at 10,308.95.

Indian stock markets closed on a lighter note on Thursday after a choppy trade through the day ahead of the GST Council meeting outcome. BSE Sensex ended up 32.12 points or 0.1% at 33,250.93 points whereas NSE Nifty settled 5.8 points or 0.06% higher at 10,308.95 points. The shares of heavyweight companies such as ITC and HDFC emerged as the major draggers while a surge in Reliance Industries and ICICI Bank contributed the most in the Sensex gains. During the day, the benchmark Sensex lost as much as 107.27 points to hit the day’s low of 33,111.54 points while the broader Nifty washed off 36.2 points to mark the day’s low at 10,266.95 points.

Shares of India’s largest telecom player Airtel recovered partially on Thursday after Wednesday’s slump of 4% on news that Qatar Foundation sold its entire 5% stake in the company for about Rs 9,600 crore. Following a value buying in Airtel shares, the stock picked up momentum in the early trading session continued its gaining streak through the day. The stock ended leading the benchmark Sensex index today, rose 2.39% or Rs 11.85 to settle at the day’s high of Rs 507.

Shares of Asian Paints, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel, Reliance Industries, HUL, SBI were among the other major gainers on Sensex, advanced up to 2.08% while ITC (down 2%), HDFC (down 1.21%) dragged the most. Shares of Tata Motors closed little changed, up 0.36% at Rs 440.3 on BSE after the automaker reported a threefold jump in consolidated profit to Rs 2,502 crore in the July-September quarter as compared to Rs 848 crore in same period last fiscal. The company posted a consolidated revenue grew 10.34% to Rs 70,156 crore as against Rs 63,577 crore a year ago, company said in a release.

The stock of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation ended 0.83% down at Rs 431.15 after the state-owned oil refiner said that its second-quarter net profit for the quarter ended 30 September has more than doubled to Rs 17.35 billion. The company posted a net profit of Rs 7.01 billion in the same quarter a year earlier.